Waiting for TA!

Of course the Article 5 drop off didn’t go smoothly. This is adoption; very few things do. We happened to be the guinea pigs with our agency for the DS 260. So instead of us being dropped off on 10/8, it actually happened on 10/17. Now those of you not in the adoption process or that never have been, this might seem like no big deal. But when you have 1,543,239,766 steps to complete in this process, and you add a few days to each step because of something out of your control, it will make a mama bear out of her mind!This case was no exception. Worse probably because we have been estimating our travel dates, which now have been pushed back a couple weeks. As much as I want to “Let Go and Let God”, let me tell you…in the adoption process YOU WILL BE TESTED!

I took some time, but finally calmed down about the wasted 9 days and again began looking forward. Our Article 5 was picked up last Thursday, 10/31. We are officially waiting travel approval (TA)! This is the absolute final approval we need internationally before we fly out! We should be getting a call sometime next week from our agency that China has invited us to go get Aili. We will then be able to start making arrangement as soon as we get our consulate appointment in Guangzhou. It looks like our “Gotcha Day” (the day we meet and get Aili) to be Nov 2. That’s my best guess at this point anyway.

We plan to fly to Hong Kong for a couple days before we take a train to Aili’s province of Guangdong. I’m happy that we’ll have a couple days to get over some jet lag before we meet her. I want to be fully present that day!

Another thing that came up yesterday is whether Raleigh should go with us. We have planned from the beginning that Raleigh would go. Even when we were planning on adopting from Colombia and we were going to have to be there for 2 months. We thought, we are adopting as a family and we should be there as a family. We’ve also thought that Aili might be more comfortable if she was with us. BUT yesterday I was reading a travel packet from our agency that addressed this exact matter. It didn’t try to sway one way or the other, but it gave some things to think about when making the decision. And it really got us thinking. It basically was spelling out what the trip will look like and we need to decide if our child can handle it without making our life hell. Okay, I REALLY paraphrased that, but we’re not sure if Raleigh can. She hates waiting and lines! With airports securities, customs in different countries, consulate appts., trains, doctor appt, it might be a disaster. Also, we have no idea what to expect from Aili while we’re there. We might have to stay in the room for days comforting her. How will R handle that?? We don’t know. Should we take this time while in country to really focus our bond with Aili, and we might not make as much progress if R is there needing as much attention as she’s used to getting. We don’t know if the pros outweigh the cons at this point. To be continued…